What Does Exodus 7:13 Mean?
And Pharaoh's heart was gripped, and he did not hear and respond to them, as the LORD had said.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And he hardened Pharaoh’s heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.THE KEY
The hidden force in “hardened” is a heart growing strong in its refusal to hear.
THE MEANING
A heart grows firm around what it refuses to receive, and that firmness appears as no response to the words before it. The LORD’s spoken word remains standing even as Pharaoh does not hearken.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that refusing to hear leaves the heart unchanged: the refusal itself is the heart becoming firm.
THE ROOT
וַיֶּחֱזַק
wayyeḥezaq
GROWS FROM
חזק
Be strong, grow firm; in causative forms, strengthen or take hold.
“was gripped” in this verse is wayyeḥezaq. The root means becoming strong or firm, so “hardened” carries the force of a heart growing fixed in its stance. Here that firmness is bound to not hearkening: resistance takes hold as a settled posture.
ALSO GROWS
ḥazaq: Strong, firm.
חָזָק
This form shows the strength and firmness carried by the root, illuminating the heart’s settled stance.
heḥeziq: Hold fast, grasp.
הֶחֱזִיק
This form carries the sense of holding on, illuminating a heart that holds its position against what it hears.
שָׁמַע
shamaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear and respond; listen, heed.
“did not hear and respond” in this verse is shamaʿ. שמע holds hearing together with response: Pharaoh is not simply without sound, but does not answer what reaches him. The verse places that refusal alongside a heart becoming firm, so inner hardness is visible as non-response.
ALSO GROWS
shomeaʿ: One who hears; a hearer.
שׁוֹמֵעַ
The word names a hearer by the act of receiving, underscoring what Pharaoh refuses to do.
shemuʿah: A report or news; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch names a message that reaches someone by hearing, clarifying that the words are present even as Pharaoh does not respond.
THE PATTERN
Resistance to a word takes shape in both a hardened heart and a refusal to hear and respond.
Do not stiffen your heart, as at Meribah, the striving, as on the day of Massah, the testing place, in the wilderness.But they refused to bend the ear, and turned a shoulder aside, and made their ears heavy so they would not hear and respond.do not harden your hearts, as in the embittering, in the day of the testing in the wilderness,THE THREAD
But they refused to bend the ear, and turned a shoulder aside, and made their ears heavy so they would not hear and respond.“Hearken” draws on שׁמע (shamaʿ, “hear and respond”), the same root as Exodus’s “hearkened.” Zechariah makes the refusal visible in the body: shoulder turns away and ears close, giving shape to the heart’s resistance.
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